8 US Lawmakers Withdraw Support for SOPA After Websites Go Black in Protest

The blackout of Wikipedia and other websites protesting against the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, have prompted eight US lawmakers to withdraw their support for the law.

Two of the bill’s co-sponsors, Marco Rubio and Roy Blunt, are among those backing away.

Wikipedia and Reddit shut down their operations for 24 hours yesterday urging American viewers to call their Congressmen to protest the bill that would use court orders to immediately shut down websites whose users upload copyrighted content. Craigslist, Google, Facebook and WordPress also protested against the bill, believing that its severe tactics to combat to piracy constituted the wrong approach.